This article is the second in a series previewing each team in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Brian Barone and the SIU-Edwardsville Cougars are not interested in late-stage roster construction. They prefer to have the pieces put together seasons in advance.
“When we’ve had success, I look at our championship year two years ago, Darrion Baker didn’t play past the first 10 games,” Barone said. “Kyle Thomas didn’t play the first 10 to 12 games. Arnas Sakenis was out six or seven games. Jo Valrie got hurt
after our Illinois game early in the year. And that’s the year we go to the NCAA Tournament. Our versatility and our depth and our togetherness has allowed us to have some success through that.
“Same thing happened with last year. You look with Ring [Malith] being out like he was, and Myles [Thompson] going out early like he did. If we don’t have the depth and the character of people that understand it’s bigger than themselves you could fold, and I think that, you know, they sat there, they came back, and there’s a little bit of an old school feel still where you come in, you develop, you get better, and then you have an opportunity when your time is called upon.”
SIUE returns three players who played starting minutes last season for the team: All-OVC second team guard Tyler King, Darrion Baker and Jordan Pickett. During a season ridden with injuries to both of their top two scorers, the trio slid into the rotation, coming into their own toward the end of the year. King averaged 16 points per game through his final 10 games of the season. Now, the 6-foot-4 guard returns with some unfinished business.
“It speaks to his character,” Barone said. “He told me he wanted to come back because we didn’t see what he’s capable of because of his injury and his health early. I think being the only all-league player coming back to a conference team speaks a lot to our culture.
“It’s not necessarily Brian Barone, I don’t mean that by any means. It’s the players that were before him, the players that are currently here, the culture of the community, and the culture of how we do things. It really says a lot when there’s opportunity for all these guys and for him to come back and stick with us. Quite frankly, there were a lot of people trying to get him to move on, and he stayed with us.”
“Anything But Mid” OVC Men’s Preview
As a benefit to staying, King returns to a roster that didn’t need a full makeover over the offseason, with the transfer portal coming as a tool rather than a necessity. The four transfers added to the roster are projected to be need-based, with the bulk of the scoring and production gained in the six rotational returners in Edwardsville. Along with King, Baker and Pickett, the Cougars return Harrison Alexander, who played sparingly last season following a 2024-25 season spent at Mississippi State; Corentin Efono, who played 19 games last year as a solid defender, and Iwo Baganc, who spent time with the Polish national team this summer at the U20 Euro Championships, where he averaged 10.4 points per game.
“It allows you to really make those right decisions even more often in terms of what’s best for the student athlete,” Barone said. “You look at the fact that those guys were developing day-to-day behind the scenes, and now it’s just their turn to really evolve and carry the torch.”
As far as transfer portal adds, Barone moved quickly and carefully in the acquisition of team needs. Gianni Cobb highlights the newcomers following a season where the 6-foot guard was the starting point guard for Northern Illinois, averaging 11.2 points per outing in his final 10 games with the Huskies. He finished the season averaging 9.8 points in the high-level MAC while racking up 3.9 assists per game as well.
“We’ve always recruited him…almost is the best way to say it, but we’ve never really had it completely in terms of our roster,” Barone said. “The year he came out, we were kind of loaded at the guard position when he was transferring last year. We had gotten Jack Campion early, and our anticipation for Gianni this year is similar to what we did with Jack last year. I think Jack had the best season of his career from his stats translated, his style of play translated, and then he got better. That’s kind of our goal with Gianni, and it was nice to have a veteran in that position for sure.”
Along with Cobb, SIUE welcomes in three new big men to round out the roster in Gestin Liberis (St. Francis), David Wilson (Independence CC) and Jacob Martin (Alabama) along with Egyptian import Belal Sohaib, who was named MVP of the Egyptian U20 and U18 league in 2025.
